


bad submissive

by chemical_darkblue



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Asexual Character, Dom/sub, Dom/sub Undertones, Light BDSM, Light Dom/sub, M/M, Scared Calum, Submissive Calum, dominant ashton, is that a tag, not daddy ash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-04
Updated: 2018-04-25
Packaged: 2018-05-04 22:32:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5350835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chemical_darkblue/pseuds/chemical_darkblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Calum and Ashton live in a world of only dominants and submissives.<br/>Ashton applies for a submissive hoping to get someone he can spend the rest of his life with.<br/>Calum applies for a dominant hoping that he’s not compatible with anyone.<br/>They get paired together but Ashton knows Calum is hiding something from by the way the sub shies away from any sexual contact except kissing.<br/>Calum does have a secret but if he tells anyone they would think he’s a bad submissive for being asexual.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. one

**Author's Note:**

> hello my children! i am back! i'm currently rewriting this entire thing, as i started this over a year ago and my writing has changed a bit since and I am very unhappy with how this was before. comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello again my lovelies! i LIVE. It has been over a year since i have updated and at least two years since i began this. My writing has changed a lot since then and I would hope it has improved and I was just generally unhappy with how this way. I will be rewriting the entire thign and then continuing.

Today was the day.

The day that everyone looked forward to, one that parents expect from the moment their child is born. Some kids dream about this day, fantasize about how wonderful and life-changing it will be. It comes in second to their wedding day. 

Determination test day. 

The test meant to determine whether you will be categorized by the government and essentially the rest of the world as either a Dominant or a Submissive. It was most common for the majority of men to be Dominants, and most women were Submissives. That was just how it worked. But Calum..he knew, you know? He’d always known he was not a Dominant, he didn’t need some government test to tell him that. It got complicated for men who weren’t heterosexual because male Submissive’s were just so rare. Not to mention the completely separate Matching System. God, it was a nightmare. Cue the immensely invasive and intimate questions, just to find someone you might not even like. 

The worst part had to be how Submissive’s were treated. Because it is assumed that all males will be Dominants, boys are taught like them, trained to be them. If they show promise or are comfortable with the lessons, they stay in that specific program. If not - they are “reassigned”, to the Submissive program. Calum was ashamed for a while, about being a Submissive, before he had the test. He’d tried to pretend, but in the end, it just felt unnatural, uncomfortable. They teach you how to punish your partner, discipline them. Many of Calum’s teachers seemed to believe that just because you have a Submissive, doesn’t mean you have to consider them to be your significant other. The consensus seemed to be that Submissives were only good for housekeeping and sex.

Calum wasn’t even going to get started on that.

He knew he wasn’t typical of the ways other boys his age were. He had no interest in sex, ever. He passed it off as him having yet to realize he was gay. He figured he’d only really thought about it with women in mind. He gave it a few years, but when his first boyfriend made him stick a hand in his pants which resulted in Calum having a panic attack and crying while this fifteen-year-old was trying to guide him through a handjob, he figured it wasn’t just women. 

So forgive him for being in the minority of people who dread test day. 

He knew it coming, everyone had to take the test, but he was in a sour mood the whole day. He was snippy and rude with the officials at the testing facility and getting on his mother’s nerves. It was all over soon enough, and the entire thing left his mind until his results came in the mail. He was approaching graduation day when they finally came. His dad picked him up at school and didn’t say a word. He seemed disappointed in Calum and at the time, he wasn’t sure why. He simply retreated to his room once he was home, but eventually, his mother came up, shutting the door. 

Calum looked up at her, giving a small smile. “Hey- have you seen Dad? Did something happen? He seems pretty upset.” 

His mother, sweet as she was, gave a pained smile, unable to tell her dear boy that he was the reason for his father’s attitude. “Your results came in.” She handed the already open envelope over and quietly left the room. 

Calum hadn’t really expected any other reaction. It was shameful for a boy to be a Submissive, especially since his sister, Mali, was a Dominant, they were hoping for two Dominants, but they got this instead. His dad didn’t speak to him for at least a week or so. He got over it of course, but it still hurt. 

 

Two years later, at twenty, all citizens take the matchmaking test. It was like deja vu for Calum, with this sense of dread leading up to the day. It was mainly about your sexual preferences, trying to to find someone that matches your answers. But Calum..he just didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t like there was an option for disgust or whatever was going on with him. So he may have..put random answers. Okay, yeah, so that was against the rules, but he didn’t have any other choice. 

Once again, the entire thing left his mind because how unlikely was it for them to get a match with his random answers?

Apparently, very easy.

He received a call only days later, stating they had found a match. He nearly dropped the phone, frozen in shock. His mother watched him before taking the phone from his hands. He barely registered the conversation, aside from “packing” and something about Monday morning. 

This was it then - he was moving out. Moving into a strangers home, someone he didn’t know, had never met, that some stupid system picked out for him. Yeah, no big deal or anything. 

 

~

 

Anne Marie Irwin always boasted to everyone about her eldest son. He was the kindest soul she had ever met, and full of surprises. She always swore he’d be a Submissive. Raising Ashton and his two siblings by herself, she had learned to adapt early on. Adapting to the fact that her beautiful boy was actually a Dominant, no problem. Harry shaving his sister’s hair in her sleep? She was..it was a process. 

Ashton had always been so kind to everyone he met, no matter who they were. He had never really agreed with what they taught at his school, about how to punish Submissives, how to treat them. He came home crying when he was young because they had discussed various forms of punishments early on and his poor heart wasn’t ready for that. 

She was good with adapting to the fact that there was not a single match for her dear boy in all of Australia. He came home that day he got the apology letter in the mail, filled with only defeat. He smacked the letter on the table, brow furrowed. Ms. Irwin gave him a tight hug and reassured him it would be okay, it just meant that someone younger than him hadn’t gone to the Matchmaking facility yet. He’d find someone. 

She wasn’t wrong. 

Years later, when Ashton had moved out and had his own job, publishing his own books that he’d poured his heart and soul into, she got a call from him. His voice was high and excited, like when he was younger and she smiled, almost missing him shout, “they found him”. 

“Say again?”

“Mom, they found him. His name- it’s Calum, the Match System, they paired us together. He’s twenty, just took the test, that’s- it’s why I didn’t have one. I- I’m picking him up next week.”

She sat down as Harry noisily went through the cupboards and she smiled. “What did I tell you? I knew it would work out.” 

Who was she if she couldn’t adapt to this too? Her baby found his perfect partner. 

She knew firsthand that the System was not perfect, the father of her children was proof. They were perfect matches, but he didn’t love any of them enough to be a father to his kids.But some small part of her hoped, prayed, this was the one for Ashton. 

Lord, let her baby be happy.


	2. two

Monday’s are generally bad. Monday’s are viewed internationally as the absolute worst day of the week. No one ever says they enjoy Monday’s. Ever. So, of course, Calum was meeting his Dominant, moving in with him, on a damn Monday.   
He woke up late for starters. He’d set an alarm and everything. But his mother burst into his room three hours later, shouting at him to get up and shower. No child of hers would look unpresentable for meeting their match for the first time. Then they’d really be the talk of the neighborhood. He rushed through getting ready, having packed most of his things beforehand. His mother helped him finish afterward and made breakfast for him.   
He sat silently at the table, his father across from him. Mali and her Submissive were visiting for a few days, so they joined them at the table. For the life of him, Calum couldn’t remember the guy’s name. He wasn’t the same kind of Submissive as Calum, he could tell. He was loud and confident and Mali had admitted to Calum in secret that they had many rules she had implemented. He expressed that he was nervous about being matched. Her going through all the punishments they had didn’t help. But the two of them were thriving together, they genuinely loved each other, Calum could see it. He supposed he could only pray for his Dominant to be kind.   
Half past noon, the doorbell rang. Mali subtly pulled her Submissive back to her old room, give Calum the sense of fewer eyes on him. His father simply left the room, apparently so unable to cope with Calum that he couldn’t see his son off. His mother answered the door, blocking his view from the living room and speaking too soft for him to hear.   
Then he saw him.  
He was tall and muscular and he gave Joy a bright smile when he stepped inside. He didn’t look at Calum at first, back facing the Submissive and shaking Joy’s hand. He had messy hair nearing his chin and though he could barely hear him, he sounded nice enough. 

~

Ashton was nervous. He was honest-to-god freaking out. He prided himself on generally keeping himself together. He was the calm, sensible person in panic situations, but when it came to this Submissive, Calum, he couldn’t keep his cool. He was on the phone with Anne Marie the entire ride to the little house his Submissive grew up in, just shouting through the phone about all the possibilities.   
“What if he hates me? I- I’ve waited years to get matched and I finally do, what happens if he doesn’t even like me? Oh god, what if he’s an asshole? Mom, do you think he looks like an asshole? I sent that picture I got of him, did you see it?” He didn’t give her a chance to answer before moving on to the next panicky question.   
Once he arrived though, he hung up and took a breath.   
This was it. His only match in the world was ten feet from him. Some small part of him didn’t want to go in, because if he wasn’t what Ashton had dreamt of, this illusion of a partnership would shatter.   
But he had to.   
He calmed down a little before ringing the bell. A short woman with dark hair answered and he gave a bright smile. He didn’t get a chance to introduce himself before she cut him off.   
“You’re Ashton?” She asked, eyebrows raised. “Of course you are, I’m Calum’s mum, Joy. I’m gonna talk to you for a little longer to worry him, okay?” She smiled, taking up the whole door frame.   
Ashton gave a small laugh, nodding. “That would be me. Good to meet you, Joy.”   
The woman waited a moment more before letting him in and shaking his hand. “Calum’s right in there, he’s all packed and everything.”  
Ashton thanked her and turned towards the other room. He didn’t know what he was expecting, but he wasn’t sure anything could have prepared him for the beauty awaiting him. The picture he’d been sent of Calum didn’t do him justice. He felt his heart warm at the sight of the boy, wide-eyed and foot tapping constantly, anxiously against the hardwood.   
“You’re ready?” He asked softly, hand reaching out without Ashton even realizing, to cup his cheek just to keep looking at him.   
When the boy gave a silent nod, Ashton gave his cheek a pat. “Use your words, babe.” Ashton cracked a smile when the Submissive stuttered out a quick affirmative.   
They piled Calum’s meager possessions in the car - or rather Ashton saw him struggle and told him to wait in the car while he finished. The ride to Ashton’s home was silent. He understood it had to have been stressful, uprooting your entire life for your Dominant. Ashton looked at the kid every chance he got, just in awe.   
Ashton was definitely what one might call..comfortable. He wasn’t rich by any means, but he had a nice house and a nice car and pristine furniture. Calum seemed scared to touch anything at all. Ashton led him to the bedroom and helped take care of his things. Ashton let another hour pass before he came to Calum, the dark-haired boy sitting at the edge of their bed, staring a hole into the carpet.   
“You’ve probably had a crazy day. Get some rest, sweetheart.” Ashton planted his lips on his Submissive’s forehead for only a second before he left the room, wanting to get a few more things done before heading to bed.   
He finally came to turn in for the night hours later, after cleaning the entire main floor and organizing the bathroom, to see Calum fast asleep, curled in on himself at one edge of the bed.   
God, this boy was going to be the death of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i did rush this a little bit simply because im so excited to start this back up again! not sure if i want to proceed with this style, half calum, half ashton. I myself do not like reading like that, but not sure for my own writing. Comments/kudos are appreciated!


End file.
